Without knowing it, we have run in the same crowd for years. Who would've thought a friend's kid's birthday party would bring us together, not that night though, but it provided a topic of conversation of familiarity when a simple like turned into a message, turned into texts, turned into calls, and ultimately a first date. And here we are today, gearing up for one of the biggest days of our lives. Sin saberlo, hemos corrido en el mismo circulo de amigos por anos. Quien iba a pensar que atendiendo una fiesta infantil de cumpleanos nos atara juntos, aunque no esa noche, pero proveo una convercacion comun cuando un simple gusto se convierte en mensaje , se convierte a textos, se convierte en llamadas y ultimamente en una primera cita. Y aqui estamos....

So I keep going back to this day and thinking, either I trust Ramon so much... or I should learn to ask more questions. Because the day he got the ring was pretty sketchy now that I look back at it. Ramon had told me that his friend Joel's mom needed help moving apartments and Joel had asked him for his help. That was all fine, until I so happen to have that Saturday off too and offered to go along and help as well. Ramon was really against it, said I should enjoy my day off, spend time with my family. Oh okay... he doesnt want my help :( Joel picks him up around nine or ten that morning and off they go. I was trying not to bother them and not texting Ramon as i figured they were busy, until I got lonely. Might have been around noon when he said they were taking a break to eat. I found that odd, because it was kind of early to break for a full lunch. Its about an hour drive to Joel's mom's place, so they only moved furniture for 1 or 2 hours? And if I was moving, I'd have gotten some take out pizza, but they were out eating at a restaurant. Okay, whatever, I continued on with my day, went out shopping. On my way back home, my mom calls me that she will be making enchiladas for dinner and invited me over. I immediatley said yes, if you've had my mom's enchiladas, you know you don't say no to those! I called Ramon just for a quick check in, letting him now that my mom was making enchiladas, but that I let her know he probably wouldn't be joining. To which he said they were heading back home and yes of course he was joining. It was 4pm at this point. They arrive around 5pm and show up with gift bags. Joel said they had time to go birthday gift shopping for me and HE had gotten me a gift as well, but that I needed to promise not to open it until my birthday. I also want to note that Ramon was wearing the same shirt he left the house with, even though he took an extra "in case he sweated through" the one he was wearing and he never complained about being tired or sore. I clearly cannot see red flags if they hit me in the face. Now if you were to ask Ramon about this day, he will say that there was no moving of anything. He had gotten with Joel to go select the ring. When he found out I was off that day and was willing to help, he was beside himself. Luckily for him, I didn't push the issue and stayed home. They went to two or three jewelry stores and when asked what kind of ring does your girlfriend like, Ramon's answer was "she likes ugly things, like ugly pumpkins". To be fair, I never shared with Ramon ring styles or anything like that. And he is not wrong when he says I like ugly things, like ugly pumpkins. I do find beauty in imperfections and those fall squashes with the warts on them are so cute! Going off this vague description, Ramon did really good at picking out a ring that I love. I honestly would have loved any ring he gave me, but he looked so hard for this one and it makes it so special. Anyways, fast forward to when they arrive at the house with the two gifts. It was their way of hiding the ring. One had the ring and the other was a decoy gift, so if i happened to open one, their hope was that it was the decoy one. I do have self control though and I did promise not to open them, so it was safe.

Now to the engagement day... Ramon and I had planned a getaway to St. Augustine for my birthday in May 2023. We get there and do all the touristy things I love. Ghost bus tour, ghost bar crawls, eateries, wineries, distilleries. My favorite was the Ghost bar crawl, our guide was very entertaining and took us to the best places. Might have been that we did the crawl right after he kind of popped the question... I say kind of because of this... Ramon and I had plans have dinner and meet our guide afterward. He had spotted some horse-drawn carriages the day before while out and about and wanted to do those before meeting our guide. We finished dinner earlier than he wanted though. He wanted a sunset ride and it wasn't quite that time yet. He was indecisive of what to do and seemed a little out of it. We did the carriage ride early anyway and the guide there was giving us a rundown of everything historical in St. Augustine. A little more than halfway through the ride on Aviles Street, the guide asked if "we needed a break from him" to which Ramon responded "Yes man, just give us a minute". He reached in to one of the two gift bags from the engagement story, pulled out a box, and said "Marry me". Simple and to the point and clearly I said yes because here we are... We finished the ride and walked along the river where he confessed his greatest fear was dropping the ring off the carriage onto the cobblestone road. And what was in the decoy bag? ... A baby Simba plushy and blanket courtesy of the best man's little girl, Ramona...